The US dollar index on Friday pulled back off the current weekly highs of 102.291 to trade at 102.058 after the US non-farm payrolls. The USDX continues to trade within an ascending channel formation in the 60-min chart.

The dollar currency index is trading a few levels above the 100-hour moving average line. Friday’s pullback prevented the DXY from ascending into the overbought levels of the 14-hour RSI.

The US Dollar Index Fundamentals Overview

From a fundamental perspective, the US dollar index is trading at the back of a relatively busy period in the US market. On Friday, the US non-farm payrolls for March missed the expected job count of 240k with a tally of 236k. On the other hand, the unemployment rate for the period outshone the forecasted rate of 3.6% with a rate of 3.5%, while the average hourly wage growth for the month missed the expectation of 5.4% with a (YoY) change of 5.2%. The labour force participation rate for the period edged slightly higher to 62.6% up from 62.5% in February, beating the estimated rate of 62.4%.

Earlier in the week, the initial jobless claims for the week ending March 31 missed the expected claim count of 200k with a higher tally of 228k. The ISM Services PMI for March also failed to match the expected reading of 54.5 with a reading of 51.2, while the ISM Manufacturing PMI fell short of 47.5 with a reading of 46.3. Elsewhere, the ADP Employment Change for the period failed to meet the expected reading of 200k with a reading of 145k.

The US Dollar Index Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)

Technically, the US dollar index appears to be trading within an ascending channel formation in the 60-min chart. This indicates a significant short-term bullish bias in the market sentiment.

Therefore, the bulls will be looking to stretch the current run of gains toward 102.158 or higher to 102.291. On the other hand, the bears will be targeting pullback profits at about 101.920 or lower at 101.777.

The US Dollar Index Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)

In the daily chart, the US dollar currency index appears to be trading within a descending channel formation. This indicates a significant long-term bearish bias in the market sentiment.

Therefore, the bears will be looking to stretch the current declines toward 101.468 or lower to 100.813. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 102.674 or higher at 103.329.